The present invention relates generally to systems for generating tones using communication terminals, such as portable communication terminals, and tone generator modules.
In view of recent trends toward higher performance and functionality of communication terminals, such as portable (handportable) phones, there have been proposed various usage or additional functions other than their primary telephone functions. One example of the proposed additional functions is to use the communication terminal to generate musical tones. Among the proposed techniques for generating tones using the communication terminal is one in accordance with which tones are generated, in response to user's operation of keys on the communication terminal, via a tone generator circuit provided within the communication terminal. According to another one of the proposed techniques, a terminal operation device including performance operators is connected to a communication network via a portable communication terminal, so that tones are generated by remote-controlling an electronic musical instrument also connected to the communication network.
However, none of the conventionally-proposed techniques can readily generate and perform tones of high musical quality. Namely, with the technique for generating tones by the communication terminal itself, generated tones tend to be of poor musical quality because the tone generator circuit provided within the communication terminal is unavoidably limited to a simple structure. Further, with the technique for remote-controlling the electronic musical instrument, the user can not easily enjoy a musical instrument performance, because the extra operation terminal device including performance operators is required. Also, because the communication via the network requires a predetermined time, it would take a long time before the electronic musical instrument can actually generate tones after user's operation on the terminal device, so that a real-time performance is difficult to achieve.